I bought a Freeflow Lite back in May. Unfortunately, it was broken by August (one of the poles forming the curvature folded and another pushed it's way through the fabric that was meant to retain it) and so only used one briefly.
I found that it does a lot to resolve the sweaty back issue. I suppose your point is the reason they have added another cut-out to the mesh.
The mesh forms part of the structure of the pack (in fact, on the lite, you can release the mesh and the back then goes entirely flat) and I think that if you say had a simple X shape formed of string then it would be a less stable shape as well as potentially leaving interesting marks on you at the end of a long day.
Having briefly experienced it, I don't believe that Freeflow itself gives enough benefit to justify the reduced sack stability by moving the kit further from the wearer's center of gravity.
Posted: 13/01/2007 at 23:45
